The Secretary, acting through the Assistant Secretary of the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (referred to in this section as the “OEDER”) and through the Smart Grid Task Force established in section 17383 of this title, shall, after consulting with any interested individual or entity as appropriate, no later than 1 year after December 19, 2007, and every 2 years thereafter, report to Congress concerning the status of smart grid deployments nationwide and any regulatory or government barriers to continued deployment. The report shall provide the current status and prospects of smart grid development, including information on technology penetration, communications network capabilities, costs, and obstacles. It may include recommendations for State and Federal policies or actions helpful to facilitate the transition to a smart grid. To the extent appropriate, it should take a regional perspective. In preparing this report, the Secretary shall solicit advice and contributions from the Smart Grid Advisory Committee created in section 17383 of this title; from other involved Federal agencies including but not limited to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“Commission”), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (“Institute”), and the Department of Homeland Security; and from other stakeholder groups not already represented on the Smart Grid Advisory Committee.
(Pub. L. 110–140, title XIII, § 1302, Dec. 19, 2007, 121 Stat. 1784.)